New Playoff Rules for Puerto Rico

[CaliforniaVBfan]

This year, new rules were introduced for the playoffs in the Puerto Rican Superior League season: Five teams and a wild card.

The new rule is not a bad idea, it gives the lower ranked team a bit more competive playing time. With the old (conventional) eight-team format when the last team is matched against the first in the first round of playoffs, the last team is (usually) condemned to lose at the start.

The playoff rule is as follows:

The best five teams in the Superior League tournament will receive an automatic bid to continue on into the postseason playoffs. The sixth team in the playoffs will be a wild card. This differs from prior years when the top eight teams on the global chart qualified for the playoffs.


According to the tournament rules, the team that finishes in the eighth position will play against the seventh position team in a sudden death match. The winner of that match will compete against the sixth place team. The winner of that match will continue into the post season playoffs as the wild card team.

[benwhipdrofn]

is there a website that is english that we can follow all of this.

[CaliforniaVBfan]

benwhipdrofn said:

is there a website that is english that we can follow all of this.

Unfortunately, I have not found an English "speaking" site that covers Puerto Rican volleyball. I know just enough Spanish to make out the essence of an article and then use a translator. But the translator results are really fractured English and sometimes result in really rediculous phrases, especially when the Spanish text uses picturesque expressions. :-)

Now that there are only 3 or 4 matches for each team left in the regular season and the teams are all vying for position, the outcomes of the matches have become pretty unpredictable, the favorites getting beaten by the underdogs, etc.

I'll start new strings and keep you posted as best as I can. I will include the Spanish text. I'll give it a shot at the translation. Those, who speak Spanish, please feel free to correct any translation errors.

The best coverage on a daily basis is the Puerto Rican newpaper the "PRIMERA HORA" Click on "Accion Deportiva" in the upper left side of the page, then find "voleibol" and you have access to the articles, in Spanish, of course. :-) You may try to use Babelfish as an online translator, it does a pretty decent job.

Here is the URL to the article that mentions the new playoff rules, followed by the excerpt and the translation. You need to paste the entire URL starting with "http" and ending with the word "voleibol".

archivo.primerahora.com/archivo.asp?guid=9DE0CED5937B4391AE426747E3DB26DE&keyword=postemporada voleibol

Excerpt:

Los mejores cinco equipos del torneo pasarán a la postemporada contrario a los pasados años cuando clasificaban los primeros ocho en la tabla global.
.
Según las reglas de torneo, 'el equipo que termine en la octava posición visitará al séptimo para un partido suicida. El ganador de ese encuentro se medirá al que ocupe la sexta casilla en un sólo partido, y el vencedor será el que obtendrá el pase a la postemporada.

Translation:

The best five teams in the tournament will continue into the post season playoffs contrary to prior years when the post season inlcuded the first eight teams on the global chart.
.
According to the tournament rules, the team that finishes in the eighth position will compete with the seventh for a sudden death match. The winner of that match will compete with the sixth place team in a single match, and the winner of that match will continue on to the post season playoffs.


Here is the current standing of the teams in the Superior League:

Name % Win W L Position
San Juan 0.88235 15 2 1
Adjuntas 0.73684 14 5 2
Naranjito 0.66667 12 6 3
Corozal 0.47368 9 10 4
Moca 0.42105 8 11 5
Ponce 0.41176 7 10 6
Lares 0.41176 7 10 7
Caguas 0.36842 7 12 8
Sebastian 0.33333 6 12 9
Bayamon 0.29412 5 12 10